Tyler, The Creator Interviews Nas For XXL Magazine

XXL Magazine subscribers can expect to read what should be one of the publication’s more intriguing interviews in recent memory. They paired up Odd Future head hooligan Tyler, the Creator with Nas for a conversation that dives into an engaging discussion of remaining relevancy. Tyler, for example, asks his hip-hop elder if he’s not only happy with his career but if he’s happy with the way his life has gone since releasing Illmatic in 1994. You can read an excerpt of the interview below. The full article is available at the XXL website.

“God’s Son is my favorite album by you,” Tyler said. “And my second is probably Street’s Disciple,” he continued.

“Get the fuck outta here,” Nas responded.

Awkward and quirky exchanges aside, the discussion quickly picked up with the 20-year-old Tyler asking Nas for advice.

“You, Em, Jay, Snoop, like, you guys all started when you was exactly my age,” Tyler said. “The fact that you guys are still here makes me just always think, like, Fuck, could I?”

“Oh, you definitely can,” Nas replied. “Someone like you is, you’re interesting, for a lot of reasons. So someone like you, you can’t wait to see what’s next.”

And the topics continued to get deeper as the conversation went on.

“Are you, like—this question might catch you off guard, but I ask myself this—like, when you wake up, like, are you happy,” Tyler asked. “Like, are you satisfied how everything turned out?”

“Dawg, I was naming my album Life Is Good because of how happy I am about how happy things have turned out,” Nas answered. “Sometimes I may wake up and wish my kids were living with me. That’s the only thing, you know what I mean? Our loved ones that are not around no more, like my mom. That’s the only thing. But other than that, everything is great, even when I’m alone. Even when there’s no one around.”